From Telegraph May 7 2010

Election turnout highest in 13 years

Experts suggested the figure was likely to be 65 per cent – compared to 61 per cent in 2005 and 59 per cent in 2001.

The last time turnout was higher was in 1997, when 71 per cent of people went to the polls.Stuart Wilks-Heeg, director of campaign group Democratic Audit, said: “The rise in turnout is significant but we are still way below where it use to be.“People were shocked in 1997 when turnout went into the low 70s. People might say this is a high turnout but in historical terms it is not.

”Mr Wilks-Heeg pointed to large differences in turnout between different constituencies, with tightly fought electoral battles attracting large numbers of people to the polls.He said: “In some places turnout was so high that the system of electoral administration could not cope. People were queuing for hours and hours, and this was unprecedented.

”Mr Wilks-Heeg said that problems at polling stations, where thousands of people were locked out and unable to vote, showed that “our system is breaking – and in places last night it broke”.

He said he hoped that the evidence that tens of thousands of young people decided to vote was not wasted, because voting was “habit forming”.